The power of crazy
by codename.penguin
Summary: Reid once again begins to doubt his sanity. An entry for the-vampire-act ‘write a season 5 finale’ fanfiction contest


******(An entry for **_**the- vampire- act**_** 'write a season 5 finale' fanfiction contest. Please see her profile page for details)**

**The power of crazy**

'How long does water really take to freeze?' the young doctor wailed, shaking the ice tray in the tiny gallery fridge.

Hotch drew the privacy curtain but stumbled slightly as the plane dropped nauseatingly into another air pocket.

'Reid, come sit. This turbulence is getting out of control,' he ordered. 'We will be landing in a few minutes. We can get JJ another ice pack at the airport.'

The older man watched as his usually mellow work colleague, slammed the fridge door violently before he leaned against the small counter. The thin man bowed his long head of hair to stare at the floor.

'Reid you could not have known,' he tried to reason with his distraught agent.

The man spun around to face him with an unreadable expression.

'**That would make it TWICE this year that I sent JJ to an unsub's location**,' he hissed angrily.

His superior placed a comforting hand on the bony shoulder. In despair, JJ had come to him to beg him to do something as Reid tried to drown her in hot coffee and ice packs, in attempt to make up for his mistake.

'You didn't do it deliberately,' the man chastised him with a forbidding frown. 'Stop this at once.'

'Huh? Of course I didn't do it deliberately!' the man babbled with a wild look in his eyes. 'Why would you even say something like that?'

The older man narrowed his eyes at this strange reaction. Reid purposely hurting JJ was as probable as the sun rising in the west. In the meantime, the boy had turned away from him and was busying himself in putting away the coffee making items, surreptitiously rubbing his tummy.

Hotch hastily filled a glass of water, 'Are you alright? Is it your stomach?'

A surprised look crossed the profiler's face. 'I told Emily not to tell!'

'She didn't,' the man quickly reassured him. 'You have some dried vomit on your vest.'

Comically the man twisted his head to see the droplets and ripped off the traitorous outer garment to stuff it in the kitchen bin.

'I'm fine!' he said defensively, crossing his arms across his thin chest.

However he let out a sharp yip as the plane titled, violently pitching him into Hotch's arms. The senior agent held on to the small body as the cabin was plunged into darkness.

'REID!!!' Morgan roared in fear.

The sounds of assorted moans, shouts and crashes drifted towards them as their colleagues reacted in different ways to the air disturbance.

'For God's sake Morgan!' Hotch yelled in annoyance. 'He's right here. We're in a plane in mid air. Where did you think he would wander off to?!!'

'JJ, Emily?' Dave spoke up in the silence that followed that bit of deductive reasoning. 'Is that your hand in my lap?'

'Oops. Sorry,' Derek replied.

The dark profiler was saved from Rossi's blasphemous response as moonlight suddenly flooded the cabin, bathing the team in its pale glow.

'Whoa,' Reid said in awe, 'they look like corpses.'

It took him a few seconds to realize that his superior was staring at him with a pained expression.

'Sorry,' he whispered in embarrassment. 'I know. I'm weird.'

'You're not weird,' the man insisted walking him to the closest empty seat. 'Your brain is just wired a bit different from mine.'

The boy quickly buckled his seat belt under the man's pointed glare. 'It's really nice of you to say it like that. If I have never told you this before, you're an awesome boss.'

Morgan shuffled passed them to check with the pilot.

'Thank you and it's perfectly alright to be sick once in awhile,' the man remarked shifting the topic back to what they were originally discussing. 'It was a horrible way for a person to die.'

Reid scrubbed his eyes tiredly with his bunched fists.

'I agree, but that is not what was …' he began before leaning back in his seat with a bleak look.

'What's bothering you then?' Hotch asked beginning to feel uneasy. The young man had been unusually tense for the last couple of hours.

'You wouldn't understand,' he mumbled almost inaudibly.

The tall man crossed his arms as the boy stared listlessly at the beautiful full moon that they rest of the team were enjoying.

'And why is that?' the lead profiler wanted to know.

Reid smiled sadly back at him. 'Well, as you said, my brain is wired differently to yours.'

'Reid…'

'Hotch, can I do my paper work tomorrow? I am just so…tired,' the young man uncharacteristically interrupted the lecture the man was about to launch into.

Their lights came on and the pilot spoke up at almost the same time.

'Sorry about that folks. Let's get you on the ground, shall we?' a calm, steady voice spoke through the tastefully hidden speaker system.

Ten minutes later Morgan rushed out the plane as soon as the wheels had locked into place.

'Are you going to kiss the tarmac now?' Rossi mocked as the girls laughed in tandem.

'That's just wrong. Why you have to hit a brother when he's down?' the dark profiler huffed, clinging to the plane's stair rails with a tight grip, obviously resisting the urge to hug the ground with great difficulty.

'Hey kid. Where are you going?' Derek asked as he saw Reid shielding his eyes to better scan the car park. A dark man's shadow waved vigorously catching everyone's attention. Reid waved back.

'Hotch said I could come in early tomorrow and submit my paper work,' he replied distractedly as he reactivated his phone and started texting.

'Oh. Alright, but I can drive you home,' Morgan offered, eyes cutting suspiciously to the stranger who had just started his car.

'That's alright,' he answered looping a dangly arm around the man to give him a one handed hug. 'Make sure everyone reaches home safely.'

'I always do,' the man reassured him, returning the hug. 'Try to get some rest. You look like crap!'

The man had turned to walk away before the young doctor called him back.

'Morgan, ask Garcia to look at this for me,' he requested pitching the cell phone in a graceful arc through the air. 'The message system is all messed up.'

'That tends to happen when you keep sitting on your phone,' the dark man teased him as Reid scowled in irritation.

'That happened only one time!' he shouted in an aggravated sort of voice.

Emily continued to peek curiously as the boy walked away towards the car park. 'You know I don't think I have ever met any of Reid's friends.'

'Yeah, me too,' Rossi added and they exchanged a sad look at the unstated implication.

Just then a shout from the plane gained the attention of the disembarking agents.

'Aaron. Penelope's on the runway and she will be here in a few minutes,' their loyal pilot informed them. 'She sounds upset.'

'No way!' Derek yelled out loud as JJ frantically scrolled through her internet messages. 'We just got back.'

Instinctively they all gathered a little closer to each other as one of the team SUVs roared into view at a dangerous speed.

'I've got nothing,' JJ reported and Hotch then proceeded to check his mail.

The doors of the car swung open before the SUV even stopped moving. Everyone stood in stunned surprise before JJ catapulted herself into the driver's arms.

'I want to see every single baby picture later,' Gideon commanded, kissing her nose tenderly as he carefully put her back on her feet.

With his free hand he gathered Morgan close. 'Glad to see you're still here. I like the haircut.'

For once the dark man was speechless as his old mentor clapped him heartily on the back. The long absent profiler let them go as the dark haired woman approached.

'Emily Prentiss,' he said impressively shaking her hand firmly. 'I had my doubts about you. I was never so glad to be wrong before.'

The agent smiled graciously at the older man's endorsement. He had told her point blank that he would never trust her.

The team watched warily as Jason slowly approached an expressionless Hotchner.

'I believe what you said was true. The world did spin faster with Hailey in it. I am so sorry that you lost her,' the man offered simply.

For a bad moment Hotch just continued to stare but then he held out one arm and the two men embraced as warmly as if all the years of pain and disbelief at his desertion had never happened.

'You were at the funeral?' the lead agent said in an accusing tone of voice.

Gideon stepped away to look at the unfamiliar lines of strain on his old friend's face. 'You know Jack's hair sticks up in the back just like yours.'

This got a quick smile from everyone except Rossi.

'Gideon,' he greeted the man in unfriendly tones.

'Rossi,' he replied with a polite tilt of the head.

Unexpectedly Dave spat out something that sounded like Russian in the man's direction.

Every eyeball swiveled to observe the reaction as the team didn't need Prentiss to interpret. Somehow profanity always had a rich robust feel to it that required no translation. Jason went a little white about the mouth but held his ground.

'This maybe hard to believe but I agree with you. I should have been there for them,' he responded to Dave's accusation as calmly as he always did. 'You are welcome to kill me later. How is Reid holding up?'

The ex-profiler stared eagerly up the stairs to catch a glimpse of his protégée.

'You just missed him. He went home,' JJ supplied the bad news, glancing over at the empty car space in the adjoining car park.

'What?' Garcia spoke up for the first time from where she was typing vigorously on one of several laptops surrounding her. 'Is it such a good idea for him to be alone? He was so emotionally attached to the boy.'

'What boy?' Emily asked.

Gideon ignored her to turn to the computer tech realizing now that the plan to meet at the plane to combine forces on the new case was not going to materialize. It was also clear from the blank looks on the faces around him that the young doctor had kept the events of what had transpired in last few hours to himself. 'Find him!'

The team gathered around the open car door confused, and upset.

'His phone is on,' she announced happily but then frowned as Morgan extracted the ringing device from his pocket.

'Hotch, I know you don't have all the facts, but it is imperative that we collect Reid and keep him close to one us,' Gideon practically pleaded with his former boss.

The man hesitated, but he knew of the special bond that existed between Reid and the older profiler. No matter how ambivalent Jason might feel toward them it was obvious that he had come forward from his seclusion for the boy's sake.

'Garcia, contact airport security and get them to close the exits. Anyone got a good look at the vehicle?' he threw out to the team.

Gideon turned to JJ as Emily and Rossi bounced descriptions of the car off each other.

'He didn't drive himself?' he asked, fear growing in his heart as an alarming thought crossed his already anxious mind.

'I wasn't looking at the car; I was scoping out Reid's cute friend!' Emily cried out in frustration, struggling to remember what she had barely looked at. 'It was a four door, white ...there was some sort of sticker on the side…um delivery something, I think.'

Gideon held one of the laptops in front of her face and the young agent's eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the slim, curly haired man that was smiling uncertainly at his picture taker.

'Was this the driver?' he asked in a hushed strained voice.

She nodded her head and her insides froze at the dismayed exclamations surrounding her.

'Who is that?' she burst out passionately, sick of being in the dark.

'**Nathan Harris*'** Rossi informed her reading a case file that he picked up from Garcia's mini workstation. 'He has all the potential to be a grade-A psychopath, who unfortunately for the people of Washington, has liberated himself from a hospital prison ward...in a most violent manner.'

The dark haired woman looked around in panic at her friends, 'I don't understand…why would Reid go with him?'

'An old case, Emily,' Hotch added for the benefit of the two profilers who had not been on the team at the time. 'But Nathan had a hold on Reid on a number of different levels.'

The supervisory agent pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial. 'This is Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner. I need to speak to Chief Strauss immediately to request urgent back-up.'

'What is he doing?' Morgan hissed, 'We don't any help from that …errrr….her!'

'Hotch is right,' Rossi and Gideon said together.

'We need a fresh pair of eyes on this,' Rossi explained further, glaring at the older man in annoyance.

'…because Reid knows you better than you know yourself, Morgan. You are never going to see him again until he is right in front your face,' Gideon concluded.

'He left me a message!' the computer tech yelped out in fear staring at the young doctor's phone.

Morgan grabbed the device from her as her hand started to shake violently.

'I'm so sorry,' he read out loud to the worried men and women who crowded around him. 'Please tell Henry that I love him.'

**Notes:**

*** Reid blamed himself for JJ's injuries in 'The Performer'**

*** Nathan Harris- One of the suspects in the Season 2 episode, 'Sex, Birth, Death'**


End file.
